AMONG THE OKAPI

Past crimes and present attractions converge in Taylor’s novel.

At first glance, this is a classic campus story. The events unfold around fictional Waverly College in Canada, and the cast includes brilliant but depressed professor Richard Smith and struggling young lab demonstrator Fred Atkinson. The plot is set in motion when Fred finds himself attracted to his student, Esther Barton, a former schoolmate from the small town where they both grew up. Soon, however, the novel speeds past familiar tropes and into an open territory where the characters’ struggles are both original and relatable. Fred and Esther develop quick chemistry, aided by the fact that Fred has been kicked out of his apartment for nonpayment of rent; Esther offers to share her room above her Uncle John and Aunt Daphne’s garage, and she drives him around, as Fred’s car needs a new muffler. At the heart of the novel, however, stands Dr. Smith and his mysterious past: What prompted him to accept the modest position at Waverly over lucrative offers in Great Britain and the United States? What transpired years earlier in the Congo where Smith studied the okapi? When Fred is hired to organize Smith’s old journals for publication, he begins to unravel the tragic events that explain Smith’s depression, his lingering guilt, and his persistent preoccupation with Esther’s family. Over the course of the novel, Taylor delights in portraying complex and not always sympathetic characters. Fred, for example, is sincere in his feelings for Esther, yet he fails to mention that he’s been encouraging his landlady’s sexual advances to avoid paying what he owes. Uncle John makes his wife and niece’s lives miserable with his annoying comments (“He tended to have pet theories on a lot of subjects, and it didn’t take much to set him off”), but the sudden arrival of his adult son, Jason, effectively reveals John’s sentimental and vulnerable side.

Deep character development breathes life into a smart, complex novel that transcends academia-novel tropes.